1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a portable device, and more particularly to a portable device capable of being manipulated with one hand, and a method for controlling a user interface (UI) for the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a portable device includes a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable media player (PMP), an e-book, a navigation system, an MP3 player, a smartphone, etc. Most portable devices are designed to select/execute various icons displayed on a screen using a variety of input units. For example, the input units may include mechanical touching activated by pressure applied to a keypad interworking with a dome switch of a circuit board, and screen touching activated by capacitance, electromagnetic induction, resistance film, near field imaging (NFI), ultrasonic waves, or infrared light.
Specifically, the user interface (UI) provided through the touchscreen displays a plurality of menus corresponding to a variety of functions on the touchscreen, and induces a user to touch any of specific-function icons such that the corresponding function can be activated.
In this case, since the portable device is designed to be properly held by a user hand, the user grasps the portable device using one hand and touches icons displayed on the screen of the portable device using a specific finger (e.g., a thumb) such that the user can select a function corresponding to the touched icon. In other words, the user moves the thumb to a desired icon displayed on the screen of the portable device so as to touch the icon, such that a function corresponding to the touched icon can be selected.
However, it may be impossible for the user to select all icons displayed on the screen using only a thumb of one hand grasping the portable device according to the size of the screen or a hand or thumb length. That is, the thumb does not contact some icons displayed on the screen, so that the user has difficulty in freely touching all icons displayed on the screen. In particular, the larger the screen size of the portable device (such as a smartphone), the greater is difficulty in touching icons using only one hand.
In this case, the user must select icons using a finger of the other hand. Otherwise, after the user must change a current position of the portable device to another position, the user must select the corresponding icon using a specific finger, resulting in greater inconvenience of use. Specifically, assuming that the user must manipulate the portable device using only one hand, user inconvenience greatly increases.